Odd floppy drives (Helitron)

[Vintage Computer Festival]

On Sun, 25 Sep 2005, Allison wrote:

> >> He claims that he was the inventor of the basic
> >> floppy mechanism ... This was around 1980, maybe 1979.
> >
> >69 ~ 70?
> >I mean, by 1980 floppies were down to 5.25" and the 8"
> >had been out well over 5 years.  Maybe the guy with the
> >knob drive was lying even harder than you suspected.
> >
> >John A.
>
> Definately older than 1974.
>
> The oddest I'd seen was Ionovex The mech was about 8" high and about as wide
> but the media was a web of mylar with oxide and the head spun under it with
> a variable radius.  Strange affair.  I got to see it as bare drive but never
> as part of a system.

Alan Shugart is regarded as the inventor of the "floppy" disk in 1971 at
IBM.  So unless Al comes forward with a confession, this guy's story will
need a lot more details than just off-hand ramblings.

I've seen this kind of thing a lot: one person claims that they invented
somesuch and that some company came by, checked it out, wished them well,
then went off and stole the technology.

-- 

Sellam Ismail                                        Vintage Computer Festival
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